Valentine Tea Towels: 2 Easy Embellish Ideas

I love cute, quirky tea towels – but I hate paying $20 for them. Since I’m not a big fan of pink & frills, Valentine decor has to be sweet & simple. This year I’m mixing and matching with two simple tea towel ideas – one is an easy sew project, while the other is a 5 minute no sew project – and I’m kinda in love with both of them.

Let’s start with the scrappy heart – you’ll need a cotton tea towel (Walmart sells a 5 pack for about $5 – cheap enough to stock up on.) In addition to the towel, gather any small random scraps of fabric you love, trims, ribbons & notions, too. You’ll also need some scissors, pinking sheers, sewing pins & some Fabric Tac.

Start your heart by sewing together the strips of fabric. I did mine with a dark blue thread, so it would pop a little, sewing them with the ripped seams facing up to create texture. After I had my set of strips sewn together that would fit my heart pattern, then I went back and sewed on strips of ribbon and trim for a little more pop. This project is perfect if you’re trying to use up tiny bits of leftover fabric.

After it was all sewn together, I cut out the heart pattern (shown below) with pinking shears to prevent fraying.

To save the pattern, just click on it to enlarge, then save it to your computer.

When the heart was cut out, I used Fabric Tac to adhere it to the towel. You could sew it – but it looks much better to just glue it on – ask me how I know? Seriously, it will take about 2 seconds to put it on, and you can wash it after 24 hours.

And when you’re done, you have a super sweet tea towel! Want more embellishments? Add away! I like the simple style of just the heart.

Don’t sew? No problem! I’ve got ya covered!

Take a small stack of fabric (cotton quilting weight fabric works best) and fold it in half. Cut a small heart out, just like back in kindergarten. Ahhhh…. didn’t you LOVE craft time back then?

Lay them out on your tea towel to find the perfect arrangement, then glue them down with Fabric Tac one by one. And that’s it!

See, I told ya it was simple. I kinda love the simplicity of it – and to be done in about 2 minutes – ooooohhhh yeahhhhhh!

No matter if you just want to jazz up your kitchen a bit, or want something to gift to your friends to let them know you care, embellished tea towels are so simple to whip up. Don’t worry, I’ll never tell that it only cost you about $1 to make *wink*

Gina Luker is a writer, photographer and lover of all things quirky. She's usually found with a drill in one hand and a cocktail in the other while blogging along the way. She's addicted to coffee, polka dots, rock stars, Instagram, and everything aqua.

These are simply perfect! Do you mind if I make up a bunch to be sold at a silent auction for a young couple who are dealing with brain cancer? You can take a look at on my blog to find out more details about it. Thank you so very, very much for sharing this idea! I know my mom will love these!

What a slam bang great idea Gina. Shoulda known you’d think of something so original and cute on top of it. Making them is so simple and not time hoggers either, gotta love that kind of project. I have so many little scraps of fabric that I can’t bear to throw away so the hearts or whatever image I decide on will be great for this. Thanks so much for sharing.

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